Sis. Xiao Cheng
29-11-2020
We are in Week 4 of the series “Growing Small to Become Big.” In Week 1, Sis. Joanna Dorai shared about the commission to reach out together in groups of two. In Week 2, Aunty Christina shared about the call to fellowship together—that we as a community of Christ are meant to be more than just a community that meets for coffee chats. Last week, Dr. Paul Ng spoke about growing together as a community—we meet together and grow not just individually but also as a body of Christ together.
Today, my topic is
about “Called to Serve Together.” What do we mean by serve together? In church,
when we think about serving, we often think of a ministry that we signed up for
and once we’re in a ministry, we’re quickly put on a roster and we have duties
and schedules that we follow, we show up at the appointed time, and we do the
things faithfully. That’s what we’re all used to. But when we think about
serving together, we need to realise that together means more than one person;
otherwise you’re just serving alone. And serving together means we serve one
another and together, we move forward with the kingdom’s purpose and meet each
other’s needs. We support one another as we serve together. So we cannot serve
together without serving one another.
1) Why do we Serve?
Mark 10:45
New International Version
45 For even the Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many.”
Jesus the Son of Man is
the King of kings and the Lord of lords. When we think of kings and queens and
the highest of the monarchy, we often think that there are thousands of
servants and all their duties are taken care of. But our Lord Jesus is the King
of kings and all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. Yet,
He says He did not come to be served, but to serve. When we say that we want to
be His disciples and when we say that we are growing as a community of our
King, we need to follow Him and His footsteps in serving Him.
Mark 10:45
King James Version
45 For
even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give his life a ransom for many.
When we are serving one
another, we are actually ministering to one another.
When we think of
ministering, we often think of a Sunday service where the speaker gives an
altar call invitation and when we feel touched by the Holy Spirit and we humble
ourselves to move to the front of the altar and let our elders and pastors to
lay hands on us. And when they pray over us and pray with us, we feel
ministered to. So when we answer a call by someone who needs someone to listen
to them and when we speak words of encouragement and extend help to someone who
needs our help, we are ministering to one another.
To serve is not just
about doing a task or checking off your list or following a schedule; it is
simply to love one another. That is ministering to one another. But it is not
just about serving one another and following God as an act of obedience. Jesus
said to His disciples directly after the Last Supper:
John 13:34
New International Version
34 “A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
When God gives the
commandment to His disciples, He knows that as a community, we are building
relationships with one another. And we need love to build relationships. Every
relationship takes effort. The word “love” is such a strong word and maybe it
feels like it’s too much to ask from me. How can I love someone whom I barely
know in my life group? Not many of us are ready to say that I’m ready to love. But
God knows that when we are in a community, we are building relationships with
one another. Love requires actions. When we take actions to show and to extend
God’s love to one another, we are essentially serving one another.
2) How are we called to
Serve One Another Together?
Matthew 16:24
New International Version
24 Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my
disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Jesus said we must deny
ourselves before we say we’re willing to take on the responsibility that He has
given to us. The Bible says that the flesh desires what is contrary to the
Spirit. When we are inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in us moves us
to want to love and obey God and to serve one another. We often find it much
easier to do the things that comfortable and convenient for us to do. God knows
that it is uncomfortable and difficult to move beyond what is comfortable
before we say “yes” to serve. Sometimes saying “yes” to something scares us
because we fear what is coming after we say “yes.”
To be serving, we must
first be willing.
What are the things
that are stopping us to be willing? Maybe you want to give the best to your
career. There is nothing wrong in pursuing excellence in your career. After a
hard day’s work, we want to scroll our social media mindlessly to take our
minds off things. Some of us want to do online shopping with all the sales
going on. It can get life going and it can be comfortable. What more for some
of us who have young ones to take care of. At the end of the day, we need to
look at what are the areas that is out of our comfort zone and say to God, “I’m
willing.”
Some of us uncles and
aunties have served for many years and have sacrificed so much to growing the
kingdom of God and His church over the years. And today, you feel like taking a
short break. Or perhaps you want to give opportunities to the young ones to
rise up. My uncles and aunties, there is a place for everyone in the kingdom of
heaven. God has created all of us wonderfully and uniquely. All of us have a
special gift. What more, some of us who have gained many years of experience
and have gained so much wisdom in your years of serving. We the younger ones
need you. We need to be serving alongside so that we can learn from one
another. We need to be learning from your wisdom.
Are we willing today?
Galatians 5:13
New International Version
Life by the Spirit
13 You,
my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your
freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in
love.
This a letter Paul
wrote to the early churches of Galatia. We are called to salvation by the grace
of Jesus Christ through our faith. Our salvation is not through our works but
it is through the grace of Christ. And Paul said about not using our freedom to
indulge the flesh. Our flesh is always working in contrary to the Spirit and it
is always pulling us away from what the Spirit is telling us to do.
We are all called to
serve one another humbly in love.
Why doesn’t the Word of
God say serve one another passionately in love or serve one another joyfully in
love or serve one another efficiently in love? Instead, it says serve one
another humbly in love. I believe that God is a God of wisdom. He is
all-knowing and He knows exactly what we need before we even knew about it. My
guess is, as we grow closer to one another together as a community, we are
bound to face frictions and tensions. We are bound to have conflicts with one
another. Here’s an example: when we know a new friend, we are often very
polite. We are very careful of what we say, we filter ourselves, we sometimes
even filter the jokes that we make because we are afraid of offending one
another. But with our friends that we are closer to, we feel free with them so
our behaviours and emotions can come out freely. With our own family members,
sometimes there are behaviours and emotions that others have not seen.
All of us are
different. We have our differences and preferences in the way we do things and
in the way we interact with one another. Some of us have pet peeves and we
don’t know each other’s pet peeves. So when we have conflicts and disagreements,
God knows that when we serve like this and grow closer together, we need
humility.
Humility helps us to
serve together with people of different personalities.
God works miraculously
when we humble ourselves.
He knows how to make us
united as a community.
God knows that when we
face conflicts, we always think that our ideas are better than others and He
knows that we need humility.
Philippians 2:3
New International Version
3 Do
nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value
others above yourselves,
As a community of
Christ, we are called to love one another.
As a community of
Christ, we are called to value others above ourselves.
The whole central theme
of the Bible is about God’s love for us. God serves because He loves.
Galatians 5:14
New International Version
14 For
the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour
as yourself.”
To serve is to love.
Love will sustain us if
we serve out of love. If we serve out of our flesh and our own strength, it is
not going to last; we are bound to fall into the temptations of our flesh and
there is going to be a lot of disunity. Therefore, we need to serve out of
Christ’s love for us.
But something is
stopping us. We feel like we are stuck in this pandemic. Many of the duties
that we used to do on the Sunday services when we meet physically, we are
unable to do anymore.
May I give you this
challenge? We need to change what we think serving is in the church.
If you have been gifted
with the spirit of hospitality or you have this people skill, perhaps you can
start to look around in your life group for the people that you haven’t been
connecting well or the people that haven’t been regular to your life group.
Reach out to them with this gift that God has given to you that is unique. God
will be able to use this to touch lives.
If you have the gift of
worship, may I encourage you to look around the life groups and see which life
groups that actually need people with the talent and gift of worship to lead
them into the presence of God—even virtually.
If you’re not so much a
frontline person and prefers to work in the backend, ask your life group
leaders and members what help do they need. If your gift is in exhortation or
understanding the Bible, you can encourage someone new to grow in Christ and to
know how to live a life that is worthy of the kingdom on this earth.
For mothers amongst us
who are dealing with young children, there are other mothers out there that
need your support or share ideas and experience on how you raise your family
together with your husband.
We need to stop waiting
to go back to the good old days because the season is shifting and God is
guiding us on how we can serve one another in this community.
Will we avail ourselves
and follow God in what He is doing in this season?
Let’s stop waiting for
the pandemic to be over.
We need to serve and to
grow as a community of Christ today.
We need to love one
another and the love can only come from the love of God.
Reflections:
1.
What
is stopping me from being willing to serve today? What should I do about it?
2.
In
what areas and to whom I need to humble myself to, to allow myself and others
to serve even stronger together?
3.
What
are my gifts? How can I use that to bless others starting today?
RELATED:
Commissioned to Reach Out Together
